The digital liner notes for Doom of the Damned cite this record as the “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the 1986 horror film, Doom Of The Damned.” IMDB and its ilk have no such record of any film by that title. The mid-80’s were a rather fruitful time for horror movies so a lack of records about it could mean it was a regional release, a highly independent release or simply a film lost to time. Fortunately, the album credits go on to say that the film is part of a collection of movies known as The Lost Tapes and the backstory behind them is… wild.
According to these documents, in 1942 a military plane crashed on a small undiscovered island called located somewhere between California and Hawaii. The natives helped the crew manage a journey back to the mainland but the military found their way back and setup a military base there in the early 1970s. During the decades long occupation of this outpost, residents created films for the amusement of the natives; complete with extensive original soundtracks. These scores were shipped back to the mainland for audio mastering and eventually landed in the basement of a Nashville studio. In 2018, they were discovered by Misfit Pet Music and are now being released one at a time. The first of these Lost Tapes is the aforementioned Doom of the Damned.
All that said, the music here is creepy. Whatever accompanying visuals paired with this was a dark journey. The instrumentation is largely synths and drum machines; a precursor to a synthwave moment that wouldn’t be officially recognized for another 30 years. Had this made it into the mainstream, it would have fit well alongside They Live, The Thing and just about any other Carpenter film.
If all this sounds a little too fantastic for reality, you’re letting your cynicism get the best of you. The truthfulness of the backstory is irrelevant; just let yourself embrace the tale and dive into the wild soundtrack previously lost to time.